How I came to the Way and stayed

My parents were very religious, so talk about the Bible and church activities were everyday occurrences. But with all the talk, there were no foundations of how we got the Bible or even if Jesus was real. There seemed no way for a little boy to know.

I would ask my mother such questions as "How do we know we can trust the Bible?" I would get answers such as "we believe it...". or "it must be...". I never really had any evidence for myself. I would go to evangelist meetings with my parents and hear inspiring messages and answer the call to the alter to "be saved". That always impressed my parents --every time -- but I had little understanding of what "saved" was. Sometimes there were "testimonial" times where different people would stand up in a meeting and share what the Lord had saved them from. That didn't help because I hadn't been saved from anything "evil" like drugs or drink.

As I grew older, I wondered if salvation wouldn't be getting away from strict Mennonite parents!  But how would that sound in an evangelistic meeting? School mates also went to church but they were allowed to go to dances and movies. My parents' only explanation for that was that there were "liberal" churches that don't really believe. Maybe they didn't believe but from my perspective they were having a lot more fun!

Eventually, my parents were invited to attend a class on the Bible called "Power for Abundant Living" taught by doctor somebody. Well at least they were out of the house on Friday nights and I could watch "Twilight Zone" without getting into trouble. Then strange things began to happen. My parents started talking about the Bible more. They were talking about specific things, not just quoting the preacher or the Sunday School booklet. This class was changing them somehow. Then they thought we kids should get involved. Involvement in my parents' religion was not high on my personal agenda. This was going to require an explanation. Accordingly, they invited some guy their age called a "grad" to the house to talk to all of us about this class and ministry. That was the first time I saw some one talk like he really knew about the Bible. He made the Bible sound like someone could read and actually understand it. Then he did the most amazing thing; he spoke in tongues, right in front of us. This was not a church meeting, not even a preacher present! Wow, there might really be something to this.

When I got an invitation to visit "headquarters" on a Sunday night I agreed to go. It was a two hour drive (this better be good -- it's a school night). There was speaking in tongues again. Amazing ... they were as good at that as that grad guy, John, who came to the house. The details of that visit I relate in my list of "First Times" in another article. After my parents finished the foundational class, they started holding meetings in our basement on Friday nights. (there went Twilight Zone). Now I was meeting many grads. They all did this speaking-in-tongues thing. For the first time as a church goer, I saw something concrete that was spiritual. Maybe this Bible and Christian thing was real after all. More surprising, they would bring to these meetings, not just a Bible (I had never seen so many Bibles at once) but other books too. Everyone had a big one called a "concordance". What a book; you could find out where any word was used in the whole Bible. These people were different from the church people, they were really serious about reading and studying the Bible. They knew what was in each book. They could even recite the order of the books!

Now it was starting to get interesting as each week we would lay out on the table the printed notes from the class that Dr. Wierwille taught (I was learning the names). Eventually we came to the latter part of the notes where the holy spirit stuff was taught. Wow, you can learn details about how God empowers people... and do it!! It is real! I can trust the Bible! It works! All those childhood questions got answered.

The next summer, my parents agreed to let me attend summer school at the Way. I have never looked back. For whatever may be the condition or state of the ministry, it has never been less than the answers to all my childhood questions. It has never been less than where I learned the Word of God. It has never been less than home for one guy who loves God and His Word.